Fight or Flight Response

So a big turning point in my life was the wonderful journey I decided to take at the age of 15 - I was going to run away to London. It was a wonderful journey so I think its worth telling, so pull up a seat, get a cuppa and kick back and relax while I try and paint a picture for you of a week in my life 14 years ago. All names are changed in this re account of the story.

So when I was in 3rd year in secondary school I had got myself a girlfriend who lived around 40 min's away on a bus. So at times when I was left alone in my house and had no one else to talk to I would call her and speak for hours upon a time maybe like from 6pm till 8 pm maybe even 9pm. All of these phone calls would lead to a quite outstanding phone bill of over 280 pound the exact price has slipped my mind. The point is I quite expected the phone bill to come in at a large price and it came one day when my father was not around on a Monday morning. So I got home and opened the phone bill and saw the price and knew if my father saw the bill I was going to be in for a severe beating. Deciding I had had enough beatings from him I decided to run and get the hell out of there before any damage would come to me. In my mind I had till Friday to put a plan in motion I was leaving the country.

Now I had no passport but I knew I could get to England via the ferry. So Friday morning came and after days of planning and wondering what the hell I was going to do, I had it all worked out. I knew Friday was pay day so I decided to hijack my fathers money. I took his bankcard and also took any other money I could in the house. I did not turn into school. I decided to head out to my friends house which was close to dun laoghaire. Now I had around 300 pound in my pocket plus the ATM card which I was going to use before boarding the boat on Saturday morning. I told my close friends what the plan was and as to be expected, they tried to talk me down into not doing it but I was adamant,  my mind was made up. I told them all not to tell my girlfriend of the time until I was gone ... why I said this I don't know but everything was set in motion now. My other friend "Mary" had given me an envelope and told me not to open it till I was on the boat, I said no problem. Now being the child that I was, I thought great she is after emptying her bank account and giving me loads of money.

So lets fast forward its Saturday and the only person to see me off is "Mary" and she said some nice friend things like look after yourself and stay safe and such on and don't open the envelope till your on the boat. I said to her no problem we hugged and she started crying. I walked away trying to be all grown up and did not look around. So as I walk up with my ticket in hand I keep on saying to myself "keep it together, keep it together" I showed the workers my ticket and BINGO I was on the way to England, here I was 15 years of age about to go on a journey like my ancestors did. I was going on a boat to England to do what many Irish had done before me ! No beating for me and no thoughts about anyone else bar myself and this wonderful new life I was going to start in England - the land that welcomes so many Irish people. 

So I got up the stairs waiting for the boat's boarding gate to open, now two things were on my mind, the ATM card and the 100's of pounds in the envelope from my friend "Mary". So I had the pin number written down on a piece of paper. I went to the ATM, put in the card , now I did not know how much was in the account but I said I would try for 100 pound first. I put the card in tried for the 100 pound and it swallowed it straight away DAMN, HE WAS ON TO ME. I had to relax now I was over the hard part I was going to just have to sit down, not look suspicious and wait to board the boat. While I was sitting down and waiting, I decided to open the envelope and see what was in it. I opened it and to my shock, not even a fiver just a nice letter from Mary explaining how much of an impact I had made on her life and how good of a friend I was and to be safe.

Now I was told not to make posts too long so I'll leave it here for today and tomorrow I will continue this story from when I get on the boat and how I got on in London.

Thanks for reading